# New Zealand number plate: Standard 1986

> The New Zealand standard 1986 number plate: format LL9999, for example ME2415, 1986 to 2001, car, van, truck, and bus.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/new-zealand/standard-1986 · Markdown version of the HTML page, which is canonical. Site map: https://vehiclesdb.com/llms.txt · Terms of use: https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/terms

Part of [New Zealand license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/new-zealand) (18 registration series).

![New Zealand license plate, Standard 1986 (1986 to 2001)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/nz/nz-standard-1986/new-zealand-license-plate-standard-1986.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `LL9999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | 1986–2001 |
| Class | standard |
| Issued for | car, van, truck, bus |
| Colours | background #FFFFFF; characters #000000 |
| Rear plate differs from the front | no |
| Checking a registration | The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued. |
| Series id | `nz-standard-1986` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/new-zealand/standard-1986) |

Sources:

- [milestone 1986, verbatim: 'In November, reflectorised plates (black characters on white plates) were introduced.'; and 'The last plate in the series was issued in March 2001.'](https://www.nzta.govt.nz/roads-and-rail/research-and-data/fascinating-facts/number-plates)
- [cl 2(3)(c)(i) 'any combination of 2 letters, followed by any of the numbers from 1 to 9999 (inclusive)'; cl 2(2)(a)-(b) the two permitted colourways](https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/1995/0136/latest/whole.html)
- [reg 33(1)(b), 33(4)(b) — the form survives the 2011 recodification unchanged](https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2011/0079/latest/whole.html)

## What each position encodes

- characters 1-2: two letters, advancing as the sequence is consumed
- characters 3-6: the numeral block, 1 to 9999

## About this plate

The letter sequence did not restart in 1986: NZTA's first reflectorised plate was MX100, continuing the same run that began at AA100 in 1964.

## Before and after

| Relation | Series | Years |
|---|---|---|
| It replaced | [Standard 1964](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/new-zealand/standard-1964) | 1964 to 1986 |
| Replaced by | [Standard 2001](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/new-zealand/standard-2001) | 2001 to today |

## Other standard plates here

- [Standard 2001](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/new-zealand/standard-2001) (2001 to today)
- [Standard 1964](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/new-zealand/standard-1964) (1964 to 1986)

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/nz/nz-standard-1986.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/new-zealand?series=nz-standard-1986
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/nz` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "nz-standard-1986"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

---

Open data, CC BY 4.0: reuse it with a visible credit to VehiclesDB and a link (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/attribution). Plate images show sample serials and are not open data (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/image-license). Dataset commit db0ec0a: https://github.com/vehiclesdb/vehiclesdb
